Do officials who award contracts really know whom they're giving money to? Agencies are supposed to record past experiences with contractors in a shared database. The Government Accountability Office finds drastically different levels of compliance across government. In this week's legal loop segment, Procurement Attorney Joe Petrillo joined Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss who knows what about whom.

Although agency compliance with evaluating and reporting on contractor performance has improved 17 percent overall in the past year, the majority of agencies have not met the targets set by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, according to a new audit by the Government Accountability Office.

The Defense Department has an extra layer of healthcare coverage it doesn't need. DoD's Family Health Plan offers premium health benefits for employees that can't access a TRICARE facility. But the Government Accountability Office says most of the people enrolled in the Family Health Plan have access to a TRICARE facility. Debra Draper is Director of Health Care Issues at GAO. On In Depth with Francis Rose, she explained where the FHP comes from, and why the Pentagon doesn't need it anymore.

It's been a while since the problems surrounding HealthCare.gov were front page news. But a new examination of the site's troubled launch by the Government Accountability Office makes very clear that the IT acquisition problems that existed in the program over the past few years are not a thing of the past, and users could run into trouble once again during the next open enrollment period. Bill Woods is Director of Acquisition and Sourcing Management Issues at the GAO. On In Depth with guest host Jared Serbu, he shared some conclusions from their examination of the acquisition challenges at CMS.

USASpending.gov was supposed to be the go-to place for all federal spending. But after a couple of years of operation, it's only halfway there. The Government Accountability Office finds that agencies do a decent job of reporting contract spending. But when it comes to grants and awards, it's another story. Carol Cha is the director of information technology acquisition management issues at the GAO. She joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss the chief findings from her agency's audit.

A Government Accountability Office probe of USASpending.gov, the government's awards website, found that while contracting information was generally correct, only 2-to-7 percent of awards listed on the site perfectly matched agency data. GAO recommended better record keeping policies be set by the Office of Management and Budget to avoid inconsistencies.

After spending $1 billion on a failed border security fence project, the Homeland Security Department restarted the project a couple of years ago. But it didn't get far. A $145 million award for seven new surveillance towers has been halted thanks to a successful protest. Raytheon filed the protest against the winning bidder, EFW, an affiliate of the Israeli defense contractor Elbit. The Government Accountability Office sustained the protest. In this week's legal loop segment, Procurement Attorney Joe Petrillo joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to sort out the case.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations wants to know how agencies plan to dispose of and consolidate more than 7,000 federal properties worth $350 billion. On the same day, the FBI announced the finalists for the site of its consolidated relocation.

About 83,000 Defense Department employees and contractors, who held or were determined eligible for a security clearance, owed more than $730 million in unpaid taxes as of June 2012, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Per GAO's recommendations, the Office of Personnel Management, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and DoD are now working to include tax-compliance checks to enhance security clearance processes.

The Government Accountability Office is in the middle of an ongoing, multi-year study on the pay system, and taking its findings to Capitol Hill. A House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee looked at the General Schedule last week. Jessica Klement is legislative director of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. She shared her own ideas of how to reform the General Schedule on In Depth with Francis Rose.

Restructuring the way the federal government organizes its employees is all of a sudden a big focus on Capitol Hill. Bills to change or kill the General Schedule are already floating around, and more may come. The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and the Census looked at the future of the General Schedule with witnesses from the Office of Personnel Management, the Federal Managers Association, the American Federation of Government Employees and the Government Accountability Office. Robert Goldenkoff is Director of Strategic Issues at the GAO. He told the committee HR management in the Federal government has been on the GAO's High Risk list since 2001, but he said not all the news is bad on In Depth with Francis Rose.

Federal officials say Chinese hackers broke into the networks of the Government Accountability Office and the Government Printing Office back in March. While news of Chinese cyber attacks on federal agencies isn't unprecedented, the March attacks, first reported by the New York Times, have some observers scratching their heads. They say it's unclear why those two agencies would be targeted -- particularly in the case of GPO. Steve Bucci is director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security Policy at the Heritage Foundation. He's also former deputy assistant Defense secretary. He said the attacks shouldn't come as a surprise on In Depth with guest host Jared Serbu.

The Defense Department is getting smarter about workforce planning — making sure it has the right people with the right skills in the right positions. But DoD's five-year strategic workforce plan, released last fall, is short on details in a few key areas, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

Over the past decade, Congress has stepped up pressure on the Defense Department to gather data about its civilian workforce, and to use that data to develop a strategic workforce plan. The Pentagon has a plan, but according to the Government Accountability Office, it has some gaps: It leaves out some of the information Congress mandated. DoD's workforce strategy doesn't appear to be tied to either its budget plans or its broader management strategies. Brenda Farrell is director of defense capabilities and management at GAO. She discussed the report on In Depth with guest host Jared Serbu.

The Defense Department isn't following one of its own roadmaps. Back in 2012, defense planners devised a plan for protecting bases and installations from the potentially damaging effects of climate change. That's all started to affect DoD's planning, but there's a lot more to do. Brian Lepore is the director of Defense Capabilities and Management at the Government Accountability Office. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to discuss what the roadmaps mean.

The Pentagon says it's time to trim down the size and the cost of its headquarters staff around the world. The Government Accountability Office says the size of the overall workforce at the Pentagon's combatant commands doubled over the past decade. Overall spending to support the command headquarters grew by almost
$1 billion, too. John Pendleton is director of defense capabilities and management of the GAO. He explained DoD's reduction plan and recommended ways to shrink the workforce on In Depth with Francis Rose.

Under the Obama administration's strategic sourcing cross-agency priority goal, new commodity managers will oversee "hallways" for information technology, administration and human resources across government. The hope is that the managers and their teams of experts will be able to offer guidance and best practices to agencies when it comes to strategic sourcing.

The latest check on the Defense Department's push to full audit readiness uncovers a domino effect of problems. The Government Accountability Office says DoD didn't follow a plan to improve how it tracks contract payments. Asif Khan is Director of Financial Management and Assurance Issues at the GAO. Khan told In Depth with Francis Rose that because the Pentagon missed some steps of the plan, it's dealing with even more problems that could keep the agency from meeting an important deadline.